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Your support makes all the difference.The simmering rivalry between Hong Kong and Shanghai has just been turned up a notch with news that Shanghai has been named the fastest growing global center in the Urban Competitiveness Report (2009-10) released by the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences (CASS).
Hong Kong - increasingly paranoid about Shanghai's increased clout both in the financial and tourism worlds - remains the only Chinese city to rank among the world's 10 most competitive. But Shanghai has jumped nine places to 37th overall, representing the biggest move of any city in the world.
There are six Chinese cities in the world's top 100, according to the report, while New York, London and Tokyo retained their 1-2-3 positions, respectively.
"The pattern of urban competitiveness in the world is changing dramatically, and Chinese cities are rapidly upgrading their rankings," Ni Pengfei, a CASS professor, told Chinese media on releasing the report in Beijing.
"In addition to economic development, technological innovation and international influence are increasingly important in promoting a city's comprehensive competitiveness.''
The survey is jointly put together by Ni and professor Peter Karl Kresl of Bucknell University in the United States. It focuses on 500 cities around the world by gathering data on six indices - the scale of gross domestic product, GDP per capita, GDP per square kilometer, real GDP growth, number of international patents and multinational corporation index.
Hong Kong itself rose one place to break in to the top 10, while China accounted for nine of the world's top-10 cities in terms of economic growth rate. Those nine were: Erdos, Baotou, Yantai, Hohhot, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Rizhao, Huizhou and Weihai. They were joined in the top 10 by Baku, Azerbaijan.
The world's most competitive cities
1. New York
2. London
3. Tokyo
4. Paris
5. Chicago
6. San Francisco
7. Los Angeles
8. Singapore
9. Seoul
10. Hong Kong
And in China ...
1. Hong Kong
2. Shanghai
3. Taipei
4. Beijing
5. Shenzhen
6. Macao
7. Guangzhou
8. Kaohsiung
9. Tianjin
10. Taichung
MS
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